A tribute to Yvette Mimieux, Tuesday Weld and Carol Lynley, three talented and lovely blonde actresses of the 60s who were typed as ingenues and nymphets in their early careers but proved that they were much more than that.
Yvette Mimieux, daughter of a French father and Mexican mother, started off playing meek and frightened young women, but she fought against the typecasting, playing diverse roles in her forties, and in 1974 she starred in a TV movie ("Hit Lady") which she also wrote, playing a female assassin. Even in her early work there was something touching and powerful: the lost Melanie who mistakes sex for love and pays dearly in "Where The Boys Are" (1960); the mentally challenged teenage girl who falls in love with an Italian boy in "Light In The Piazza" (1961), and as Sloan Howland, who loves a Hawaiian boy much to the chagrin of her controlling brother , leading to tragedy in "Diamond Head"(1962). Her last appearance was in another TV movie, "Lady Boss" (1992). She has had success as an anthropologist and as a businesswoman. Once married to director Stanley Donan, Yvette is now living in retirement.
Tuesday Weld began as a child model and despite many emotional difficulties, proved very effective as both a comedic actress and a dramatic one. Her tumultous private life sparked the public's interest. Some classic examples include rape survivor and incest victim Selena Cross in "Return To Peyton Place" (1961); the sociopathic teenage murderess Sue Ann in "Pretty Poison" (1968), and as F. Scott Fitzgerald's mentally unhinged wife Zelda in "F. Scott Fitzgerald In Hollywood" (1976).
She has made a few films in the late 1990s and at the start of the decade, but primarily lives out of the public eye, having raised three children and is now a grandmother.
Carol Lynley began as a child model in her native New York; one of her aquaintances at the time was future star Sandra Dee. Her childlike features trapped her in some instances, but she was still capable of moving performances. In "Blue Denim" (1959) she played a pregnant teenager adjusting to life's changes; taking over the role of Allison MacKenzie in "Return To Peyton Place" (1961), the secretary who has her eyes on Gene Tierney's husband in "The Pleasure Seekers" (1963), and as the frantic mother of a missing child in Otto Preminger's "Bunny Lake Is Missing" (1965) opposite Laurence Olivier and Keir Dullea. She has made occasional forays back into films over the years, and is very game in participating in documentaries and biographies of other Tinsletown personalities that she has known, giving meaningful and thoughtful insights. Married and divorced once, she has a daughter.
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Tags: Yvette Mimieux Tuesday Weld Carol Lynley OneTrueMedia
